Americans are not the only ones who like to celebrate with pomp and style though. Weddings are a time for festivities everywhere, from Russia to Vietnam to Italy.

It is interesting to find out how this moment is celebrated all around the globe.

AFRICA,

AFRICAN AMERICAN

Jumping the Broom: In the times of slavery in America, African American couples were not allowed to formally marry and live

together. To make a public declaration of their love and commitment, a man and woman jumped over a broom into matrimony, to the beat of drums. (The broom has long held significant meaning for the various Africans, symbolizing the start or homemaking for the newlywed couple. In Southern Africa, the day after the wedding, a kgatla bird assisted the other women in the family in sweeping the courtyard, indicating her dutiful willingness to help her in-laws with housework till the newlyweds could move to their new home).

Some African American couples today are choosing to include this symbolic rite in their wedding ceremony, directly before the recession.

Cowrie Shells: Smooth cowrie shells, which encourage fertility, are worn in bridal necklaces used to trim gowns, jackets, and headpieces in silver and white, as decorative accents. Cowrie shells, found off the coast of West Africa, were once used as money and today are used for purification.

The shell is also used for purification. The shell is also a symbol of beauty and power.

ARMENIA

Two white doves may be released to signify love and happiness. The bride may dress in red silk and may wear cardboard wings feathers on her head. Small coins may be thrown at her.

BERMUDA

Islanders top their tiered wedding cakes with a tiny sapling. The newlyweds plant the tree at their home, where, they can watch it grow, as their marriage grows.

BOHEMIA

The groom gives the bride a rosary, a prayer book, a girdle with three keys (to guard her virtue), a fur cap, and a silver wedding ring.

The bride gives the groom a shirt sewn with gold thread blended with colored silks and a wedding ring.

Before the ceremony, the groomsman wraps the groom in the bride's cloak to keep evil spirits from creeping in and dividing their two hearts.

CARRIBEAN

A rich black cake baked with dried fruits and rum is especially popular on the islands of Barbados, Grenada and St. Lucia. The recipe, handed down from mother to daughter, is embellished by each.

It is considered a"pound" cake, with the recipe calling for a pound each of flour, dark brown sugar, butter, clace cherries, raisins, prunes, currants, plus a dozen eggs and flavoring. The dried fruits are soaked in rum and kept in a crock anywhere from two weeks to six months.

CHINA

Chinese brides receive pocketbooks filled with gold jewelry from female relatives, which bestows status on the bride.

In old China. the color of love and joy is red, which is the favorite color choice for the bride's dress, candles, gift boxes, and the money envelopes that are presented to the bride and guests.

THE CZECH REPUBLIC

Friends would sneak into the bride's yard to plant a tree, then decorate it with ribbons and painted eggshells. Legend said she would live as long as the tree.

Brides in the countryside carry on the very old custom of wearing a wreath of rosemary, which symbolizes remembrance. The wreath is woven for each bride on her wedding eve by her friends as a wish for wisdom, love, and loyalty.

ENGLAND

Traditionally, the village bride and her wedding party always walk together to the church. Leading the procession: a small girl strewing blossoms along the road, so the bride's path through life will always be happy and laden with flowers.

Brides sew a good luck charm, such as the silver horseshoe worn by royal British brides, to the hem of their wedding gown.

FIJI

The groom presents the bride's father with a tabua- a whale's tooth, which is a symbol of status and wealth.

FINLAND

Brides wear golden crowns. After the wedding, unmarried women dance in a circle around the blindfolded bride, waiting for her to place her crown on someone's head. It is thought that whoever she crowns will be the next to wed.

The bride and groom have seats of honor at the reception. The bride holds a sieve covered with a silk shawl; when the guests slip money into the sieve, their names and the amounts (Tiven are announced to those assembled by a groomsman.

FRANCE

During the reign of Louis XVI. the bride ave her bridesmaids her fans, decorated with mythological paintings, as wedding presents.

Many couples drink the reception toast from an engraved two handled cup (the coupe de marriage) as did newlyweds from days past. This cup will be passed on to future generations.

GERMANY

To mark their union, a couple give each other gold bands, worn on their left hands.

Throughout their engagement, the couple are referred to as bride and bridegroom.

During the ceremony, when the couple kneel, the groom may kneel on the bride's hem to show that he'll keep her in line. The

bride may step on his foot when she rises. to reassert herself.

GREECE

The koumbaros, traditionally the groom's godfather, is an honored guest who participates in the wedding ceremony. Today, the

koumbaros is very often the best man, who assists in the crowning of the couple (with white or gold crowns, or with crowns made of everlasting flowers such as orange blossoms, or of twigs of love and vine wrapped in silver and gold paper), and in the circling of the altar three times. Other attendants may read Scripture, hold candles, and pack the crowns in a special box after the ceremony. To be sure of a "sweet life", a Greek bride may carry a Jump of sugar in her clove on her wedding day.

HUNGARY

The couple exchange engagement rings.

The groom also gives the bride a bag of coins: the bride gives the groom either three or seven handkerchiefs (believed to be a lucky number). Guests dance with the bride at the reception, and give her a few pence in exchange for a kiss.

INDIA

The groom's brother sprinkles flower petals (to ward off evil) on the bridal couple at the end of the ceremony. To banish evil spirits, a coconut may be held over the couple's heads and circled around them three times.

INDONESIA

During an engagement period that may last for years, there are many ceremonies involving gift exchanges that bring the two families together and strengthen their ties.

A Japanese bride is secluded after the marriage blessing and is visited by an angel, which stays with her throughout the six-day ritual that blends Muslim customs with local folklore.

ITALY

Ribbons signify the tying together of two lives. A ribbon is tied across the front of the church door to symbolize the wedding bond.

Wedding guests have for centuries tossed confetti (sugared almonds) at the newly weds. Sometimes, these decorate each place at reception tables-pretty little porcelain boxes or tulle bags called boinboneiere, which are personalized with the couple's names and wedding date to symbolize the sweet (sugar) and bitter.

JAPAN

On her wedding day. the bride and her family visit the groom's house. Traditionally, she wears a triangular band on her head,

known as the tsunokakushil, or horn cover, to hide the horns of jealousy, which supposedly all women possess.

KOREA

Ducks are included in the procession because ducks mate for life. The groom once traveled to the bride's house on a white pony, bearing fidelity symbols, a gray goose and gander (fowl that mate for life).

MALAYSIA

The groom's gifts to the bride are delivered to her home by costumed children in a noisy procession, carrying lavish trays of food and currency folded into animal or flower shapes.

Each wedding guest is given a beautifully decorated hard-boiled egg, a symbol of fertility.

MEXICO

A "lasso", a very large rosary, is wound around the couple's shoulders and hands during the ceremony to show the union and protection of marriage.

Guests at many Mexican weddings gather around the couple in a heart-shaped ring at the reception, perhaps before the first dance.

MOROCCO

Five days before the wedding, the bride has a ceremonial bath, then is painted with henna swirls on hands and feet, and adorned with make-up and jewels by other women. Before becoming guardian of her hearth, the Moroccan bride circles her marriage home three times.

PAKISTAN

The bride's family strings hundreds of brightly colored lights around the house in anticipation of the wedding. The bride leaves her family to join her husband's family with the Holy Koran held over her head.

PHILIPPINES

A white silk cord is draped around the couple's shoulders to indicate their union.

A bell-shaped cage housing white doves (symbolizing peace) is a favored wedding decoration. At a well-timed moment, the bride and groom pull on ribbon streamers to release the birds, a send-off into their new lives.

RUSSIA

Wedding guests don't only give presents, they get them!

The bride gives friends and relatives favors of sweets. They give her money after the wedding

After the couple are crowned in a Russian Orthodox ceremony, they race to stand on a white rug. It is believed that whoever steps on it first will be the master of the household.

SCOTLAND

Friends carry an old good-natured custom: they wash the feet of both the bride and groom, preparing them to set off on a new path.

The sword dance, similar to an Irish jig or to a Highland fling, is usually performed at a Scottish wedding gathering.

SPAIN

The groom gives thirteen coins (the giving of monedas or arras) to the bride, symbolizing his ability to support and care for her.

During the ceremony. she carries them in a purse, or a young girl carries them on a pillow or handkerchief.

Wedding guests dance a sequidillas at the reception, during which each guest presents the bride with a gift.

SWEDEN

The bride may place a silver coin from her father in her left shoe; a gold coin from her mother in her right shoe. so she'll never do without. Her shoes are unfastened, symbolizing easy child-birth in the future. Swedish wives wear three wedding rings: for union, for marriage, and for motherhood.

THAILAND

On the morning of the wedding, the couple go to feed the monks (who have taken the vow of poverty), in order to obtain a blessing.

An old customs still practiced in rural areas, is to have an older couple prepare the bridal bed and leave behind lucky talismans, such as bags of rice, sesame seeds, coins, to wish both fertility and happiness.

VIETNAM

The mother of a Vietnamese groom visits the bride's home on the wedding day to deliver betel (a plant used to pay respect) and pink chalk (the color chosen to wish for a rosy future).

There are two wedding celebrations. one party given by the bride's family and the other by the groom's.

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Courtesy of: ApostropheMan Magazine

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